{"id":6402,"date":"2021-11-29T15:56:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T23:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/?post_type=book&p=6402"},"modified":"2023-07-14T16:43:02","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T23:43:02","slug":"north-american-wild-flowers","status":"publish","type":"book","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/book\/north-american-wild-flowers\/","title":{"rendered":"North American Wild Flowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the late 19th<\/sup> century in western Canada there were two women who, while not sisters, had a lot in common.\u00a0 Much of their stories are found in \u201cA Delicate Art: Artists, Wildflowers and Native Plants of the West<\/a>\u201d by Mary-Beth Laviolette.<\/p>\n

Mary Sch\u00e4ffer Warren (1861-1939) and Mary Vaux Walcott (1860-1940) were both of Quaker families living in Philadelphia, arguably the center for science and culture in America at the time.\u00a0 They both developed strong interests in the natural world, and developed the skills to paint in watercolors the native plants they found.<\/p>\n

They joined a trip of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences to the Rockies and Selkirk Mountains of eastern British Columbia and western Alberta in 1889, traveling together part of the way on the top of a box car!\u00a0 They brought this same adventuresome passion to hiking and exploring the peaks, returning every summer for many years.<\/p>\n

The pathways of the two Marys eventually diverged.\u00a0 Mary Vaux Walcott continued visiting the region every summer, but typically in the company of her two brothers, who were interested in studying the glaciers.\u00a0 As the only daughter, at age 20 she was expected to look after her father and brothers after the death of her mother.\u00a0\u00a0 As Laviolette writes, the three siblings had \u201cmany summers spent in the western alpine, and for Mary in particular a lifelong commitment of over forty years in the area.\u00a0 To come were the pleasures of mountain rambling and backcountry camping in addition to the study of wildflowers and, on an entirely different scale, glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walcott finally broke this pattern by getting married at age 54 to Charles Doolitte Walcott, who she met in the mountains, and who was the head of the Smithsonian Institution.\u00a0 Together, they intensified their study of native plants, resulting in the publication of the five-volume \u201cNorth American Wild Flowers\u201d from 1925-1929.\u00a0 The Miller Library has only volume five of this set, with 76 of the 400 original prints, but all are reproduced in the 1953 publication \u201cWild Flowers of America<\/a>\u201d and most are part of a splendid new (2022) collection \u201cWild Flowers of North America<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 These later publications are both in the library\u2019s general collection.<\/p>\n

While titles suggest a comprehensive collection of the native, flowering plants of the United States and Canada, the emphasis is on the places where the Walcotts\u2019 explored.\u00a0 The Canadian mountains and foothills fill in for much of western America, including our state, while the other emphasis is the Atlantic seaboard.\u00a0 The southwest species are mostly missing, but these are still impressive works.<\/p>\n

Excerpted from the Winter 2022 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em>, updated June 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the late 19th century in western Canada there were two women who, while not sisters, had a lot in common.\u00a0 Much of their stories are found in \u201cA Delicate Art: Artists, Wildflowers and Native Plants of the West\u201d by Mary-Beth Laviolette. Mary Sch\u00e4ffer Warren (1861-1939) and Mary Vaux Walcott (1860-1940) were both of Quaker families living in Philadelphia, arguably the center for science and culture in America at the time.\u00a0 They both developed strong interests in the natural world,…<\/p>\n

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